ROTC Scholarship Podcast - The Civil Air Patrol Cadet Program
Welcome to the ROTC scholarship podcast, hosted by former army ROTC, professor of military science,
Lieutenant Colonel retired Rob Kirkland, in these episodes we explore how to best prepare yourself to
obtain one of these valuable scholarships, for those applicants who wish to attend a college or
university and become officers in the military. The application process can be complex and confusing.
And we're here to talk about this podcast, civil air patrol program. And now who I have here is a
Lieutenant Colonel John Lierenz.
Robert Kirkland: John is a 40-year member of civil air patrol. He currently serves as a director of
cadet programs for the Delaware wing overseeing the education and training of
over 150 cadets in seven squadrons. His wife and one of his daughters are also a
longtime CAP members. He works as a software engineer for JP Morgan Chase in
Newark, Delaware. John is great to have you on the podcast here today.
John Lierenz: It's great to talk to you, Rob.
Robert Kirkland: Yep. Well John, you know we're, you know, we go back a long way. We were high
school classmates in colony New York and we were both civil air patrol cadets and
high school. And I know that for both you and I, that was a formative experience
in our life being in civil air patrol.
John Lierenz: It definitely was. It was so formative that I even after all these years now, 40 years,
I'm still a member of civil air patrol and still having a great time.
Robert Kirkland: Yeah, I know that, you know, that you have been so dedicated to this volunteer
organization, which is auxiliary of the United States air force for such a long time.
And I don't think I would have gone into the military unless I had been introduced
to civil air patrol. A high school classmate of mine introduced me to it and I believe
that you might have learned about it through me or maybe through somebody,
maybe one of our high school classmates too. So both of us, this experience that
we had in high school being cadets made such an impact on both of our lives.
John Lierenz: And the life of my daughter. I have two daughters and one of which was also a
civil air patrol cadet. And neither she nor I decided to go the military route. But
she and I both value our cadet experience very highly and it's definitely given us
a lot of life lessons and, and prepared us for many things in life.
Robert Kirkland: Yeah. And I'm looking forward in this podcast, John, to kind of get in into those
kind of questions. And I know you've encouraged me to maybe consider now that
I'm retired from the army, maybe to go back and be a volunteer for civil air patrol
again. And I'm seriously, I'm considering going back there and doing that and
contributing again to an organization as it had such an impact on both of our lives.
So you know, really why we're kind of talking about this today is to give our
listeners an idea of what civil air patrol is and why it's important for someone
who's considering the ROTC scholarship. You know, I can tell you, that the people
who evaluate people for scholarships for ROTC, meaning you know, the officers
and the army, Navy and air force do take the experience of civil air patrol very
seriously when they consider somebody for the scholarship.